MINUTES OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES STAFF-STUDENT MEETING
Held in the Human Sciences Common Room at 1.00pm on 17 March 2009
PRESENT:
Staff: Dr Les Dale Senior Tutor and 1st year Tutor
Dr Thea Vidnes Yr 2 personal tutor, History of Medicine
Jane Turner Course administrator
Students: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
D’Arcey Bowman Georgia Patey Emily Emmott Alexander Frey Nathan Wren Andrew Heffernan
Anna Schultze Eriko Kobayashi
1. Apologies:
Staff: Prof A. Dickenson, Dr C. Soligo, Prof T. Tansey
2. Minutes of the last meeting and Matters arising
[24.11.08: 2.] Matters arising. Current imbalance in the 1st Year timetable: LD said that College will definitely be implementing the Common Timetable from 2009-10. At the time of this meeting, in the new timetable there was an overlap between ANAT1003 and GEOG1004, so if the overlap could not be resolved it would be necessary to find a replacement for one of those modules. LD commented that it would be easier to find a replacement from among the Life Sciences modules than from among the social sciences modules. DB said that 1st year students study some Anatomy within PHOL1002 and suggested replacing GEOG1004 with another Geography course.
[24.11.08: 2.] Matters arising. Magazine subscriptions for the Human Sciences Common Room: JT reported that subscriptions have been taken out for New Scientist and National Geographic. However, even after payment had been finalised by the Finance Office, the process of setting up the subscriptions was surprisingly long: up to two months in the case of New Scientist. It was hoped that both magazines would be available from the summer term. Once the subscriptions had begun, the magazines would arrive weekly for the rest of the duration of the subscriptions, each of which lasts for a year.
[24.11.08: 2.] Matters arising. The Human Sciences in Society: LD said that unfortunately, although he had had discussions with Jane Gregory about the course, they had not discussed the specific issues raised by students at the staff-student meeting last November. He would endeavour to meet Jane again to discuus those issues. He did comment that in the previous academic year, he had discussed similar issues with Jane, who had vigorously defended the structure of the course. NW commented that the second half of the course (i.e the debates) was much more interesting; LD agreed that students usually found the second half better than the first.
Action: LD to raise students’ concerns about HPSC2008 The Human Sciences in Society with JG.
[24.11.08: 2.] Human Sciences Symposium: NW said that the current Student Committee had not decided against holding a Symposium, but had not started looking into it early enough, so the idea had petered out. However, it was hoped to hold a Symposium in the next academic year. AH commented that even though the topic of the symposium which he had arranged last year had been an interesting one, attendance had been poor. JT said that it might be possible to boost attendance by holding the event earlier in the year, when students would be under less pressure from coursework deadlines and impending exams; either in the Autumn Term or early in the Spring Term.
[24.11.08: 2.] Parenting Review: LD reported that preparations for the implementation of the ‘Transition’ programme for student mentors had begun, and students at the meeting confirmed that they had each received an email inviting them to apply to become mentors for next year’s 1st year Human Sciences students. If students applied, their application forms would be sent to the Senior Tutor (LD), who would choose a certain number of students for mentor training.
[24.11.08: 2.] Locker for storing mugs in the Common Room: JT had obtained a combination padlock (the only size which would fit) but this had not proved effective and lockers with built-in combination locks were prohibitively expensive, costing over £1,000. It was decided that mugs would be stored in the staff kitchen and students would borrow them from there. It was hoped that this would reduce the rate of attrition.
[24.11.08: 6.] Access to buildings: Pearson Building: JT had contacted Geography and had been told that Geography give the Pearson Building access code to all students attending classes there for Geography modules. LD thought that this might not actually be happening in practice and he advised that students should contact the department to request the code if it was not supplied to them. Wellcome Trust Building (History of Medicine): TV reported that she had not heard from TT about access, but she commented that any new arrangements would take a long time to implement; for example it had taken staff there eighteen months to obtain a dishwasher for a staff kitchen. Security was managed by The Wellcome Trust. She suggested that, regarding lectures, students should arrive on time when there would be someone on hand to let them in. Regarding tutorials, if in doubt, students should ask the staff at Reception in the entrance hall to phone up to the tutor concerned, who would then let them in.
3. Date and venue of the Human Sciences Summer Party
NW said that holding the Christmas party in Anatomy B15 had worked well and LD said it would be possible to use the same room for the Summer party (date to be confirmed).
4. A.O.B.
None.
Dr Les Dale, Senior Tutor Human Sciences ..…………………………………
Emily Sweetman, Joint Chairperson Student Committee ……………………………..
Nathan Wren, Joint Chairperson Student Committee ……………………………..
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